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Human Amnesia: The Function of Forgetting in Nietzsche and Jameson

Kyra%Su(on

(c)$Aria$Danaparamita$Home,$Budapest

Friedrich%Nie2sche%needs%no%introduction:%a%late7nineteenth7century%trained%philologist%be(er%known%for%his
philosophy,%this%German%whose%famous%questioning%of%value%systems%and%of%truths%objectivity%would%go%on%to
inspire%movements%such%as%postmodernism%and%post7structuralism.%Fredric%Jameson,%meanwhile,%an%American
literary%critic%and%Marxist%political%theorist,%would%become%known%for%his%critique%of%postmodernism%and%its
crisis%of%historicity%toward%the%end%of%the%twentieth%century.%Both%these%eminent%scholars%were%critical%of%the
societies%around%them,%though%their%reasons%for%critique%were%nearly%antithetical.%Yet%in%two%completely
dierent%historical%moments,%in%the%midst%of%two%completely%dierent%countries%and%cultures,%both%Friedrich
Nie2sche%and%Fredric%Jameson%lamented%societys%forgetfulness,%characterizing%it%as%a%mass%epidemic%within
human%culture.%However,%the%idea%that%forge(ing%is%problematic%was%perhaps%the%only%similarity%between%the
two%thinkers;%each%held%a%starkly%dierent%notion%of%what%and%how%it%is%that%we%must%remember.%For%Nie2sche,
forge(ing%occurs%through%the%collective%act%of%lying%that%we%commit%when%we%as%humans%endeavor%to
represent%nature%through%language,%in%other%words%when%we%arbitrarily%assign%reductive%and%general%concepts
as%designators%for%natural%entities%(Nie2sche%247).%Over%a%century%after%Nie2sches%On%Truth%and%Lying%in%the
Extra7Moral%Sense,$Jamesons%Postmodernism:%The%Cultural%Logic%of%Late%Capitalism$targeted%a%dierent
sort%of%forge(ing:%the%postmodern%movements%forge(ing%of%our%system%of%representational%metaphors%and
narratives%that%we%spent%centuries%building.%Where%Jameson%ung%accusations%at%a%postmodernism%he%found
problematic%for%its%forgetfulness%of%our%collective%historical%memory,%Nie2sche%would%have%perhaps%said%that
the%postmodern,%in%fact,%remembers:%that%it%rejects%the%narrative%history%of%representation%precisely%because%it%has
not%forgo(en%that%this%representation%is%a%human%fabrication.
According%to%Nie2sche,%our%forgetfulness%about%the%deceit%involved%in%our%system%of%representation
eventually%comes%to%imprison%us%(Nie2sche%248).%He%describes%the%way%in%which%this%form%of%representation
originates:%with%our%overestimation%of%a%li(le%thing%called%human%intellect.%According%to%Nie2sche,%human
intellect%is%pitiful,%shadowy,%eeting,%purposeless%and%arbitrary,%and%yet%we%humans%feel%within%ourselves%to%be
the%ying%center%of%this%world%(Nie2sche%246).%The%intellect%endeavors%to%preserve%humanitys%illusion%of%its
own%importance%through%deception,%cheating,%lying,%and%a(ering%(Nie2sche%247).%What%sort%of%deception,%one
could%ask?%The%very%self7deception%that%we,%mere%humans,%could%ever%possibly%represent%nature.%Take,%for
example,%the%thing%we%call%a%leaf:%a%leaf%is%no%more%than%the%arbitrary%qualities%we%choose%to%associate%with
it%and%yet%its%denition%has%hardened%into%what%we%consider%a%truthful%concept.%As%Nie2sche%explained,%when
we%speak%of%trees,%colors,%snow,%and%owers,%we%believe%we%know%something%about%the%things%themselves,
although%what%we%have%are%just%metaphors%of%things,%which%do%not%correspond%at%all%to%the%original%entities
(Nie2sche%249).%Nature,%Nie2sche%claims,%knows%no%leafs;%it%exists%not%in%terms%of%mans%overly%general
concepts%that%have%rigidied%into%truth,%but%in%terms%of%only%an%x%that%is%inaccessible%and%indenable%for
us%(Nie2sche%249,%250).%Our%truths%are%in%fact%naught%but%lies;%no%one%leaf%is%identical%to%another%and%yet%we
equate%them%under%the%arbitrary%category%of%truth%that%we%ourselves%design.%From%these%lies,%we%spin%a%web%of
human%relations,%of%science,%of%philosophy,%and%of%politics%from%our%dead%metaphors;%forge(ing%the%way%in
which%we%arbitrarily%assigned%terms%to%nature,%we%come%to%believe%that%our%cathedral%of%metaphors,%our%human
security%blanket,%has%actually%succeeded%in%representing%the%world.%The%truths%of%which%we%are%so%assured%
the%things%we%call%the%laws%of%nature%even%%are%naught%but%illusions%about%which%it%has%been%forgo(en%that
they%are%illusions%(Nie2sche%250).%Consequently,%it%is%preciselyby%this%forge(ing%that%humans%are%able%to
arrive%at%any%sense%of%truth%at%all%(Nie2sche%250).
Thus%we%are%all%guilty%of%the%lyingand%guilty,%too,%of%forge(ing%that%we%have%told%such%lies%in%the%rst%place.%In
some%ways,%Nie2sche%argues,%we%are%societally%obligated%to%partake%in%this%customary%collective%lie%and%yet%we
are%unconscious%of%our%complicity,%forge(ing%that%our%situation%is%one%of%illusion7projecting%and%digesting.%This

idealism,%though%problematic%for%Nie2sche,%is%in%some%sense%understandably%human:

for$[o]nly$by$forge?ing$that$primitive$metaphorBworld,$only$by$the$hardening
and$rigidication$of$the$mass$of$images$that$originally$gushed$forth$as$hot
magma$out$of$the$primeval$faculty$of$human$fantasy,$only$by$the$invincible
belief$that$this$sun,$this$window,$this$table$is$a$truthBinBitselfonly$insofar$as
man$forgets$himself$as$a$subject,$indeed$as$an$artistically$creative$subject,$does
he$live$with$some$calm,$security,$and$consistency.$(NieIsche$252)
But%while%Nie2sche%sympathizes%with%us,%while%he%seems%to%comprehend%that%this%will%to%form%metaphors
occurs%with%the%same%necessity%as%a%spider%spins%its%web%(Nie2sche%253),%that%without%such%perceptions%and
the%structure%of%concepts%we%form%from%them%we%would%feel%uprooted%and%lost,%he%also%seems%to%believe%that
our%security%system%is%the%cause%of%more%ill%than%good.%Even%the%supposed%mathematical%systems%that%we%tell
ourselves%exist%naturally,%that%we%have%simply%discovered,%are%but%a%projection%of%our%metaphorical%system.
What%we%call%laws%of%nature%are%absolutely%incomprehensible%to%us%in%their%essence;%what%we%add%to%them%
time,%space,%hence%relations%of%succession%and%numbers%%is%all%we%know%about%them$(Nie2sche%253).
However%much%security%they%may%lend%us,%out%of%these%laws%a%regular%and%rigid%new%world%is%built%up%for
[man]%as%a%prison%fortress;%the%very%structure%we%painstakingly%built%for%protection%comes%to%imprison%us%in
our%own%lies,%leaving%us%alienated%from%the%raw%human%feelings%and%intuitions%that%run%counter%to%our%system.
A%century%later,%Jameson%disparagingly%described%a%cultural%dominant%that%sought%liberation%from%the
centuries7old%prison%of%dead%metaphors%that%Nie2sche%identied:%postmodernism%(Jameson%4).%The
Nie2schean%critique%of%representation%in%On$Truth$and$Lying$plays%a%pivotal%role%for%the%postmodern,%which
strives%to%dissociate%itself%from%the%deceitful%(and%forgetful)%structure%of%concepts%that%Nie2sche%identied,%no
longer%believing%that%such%truths%are%tenable.%To%illustrate%the%shift%to%postmodernism,%Jameson%contrasts%the
art%produced%during%the%high%modernist%period%to%that%produced%in%the%postmodern%era,%taking%Van%Goghs
painting%of%shoes%(titled,%A%Pair%of%Boots)%as%an%example%of%modern%work%and%Warhols%Diamond$Dust$Shoes$as
an%example%of$the%postmodern.%Both%paintings%feature%a%pair%of%shoes%and%yet%Van%Goghs,%Jameson%argues,
seems%to%be%about%more%than%that.%As%he%points%out,%from%Van%Goghs%shoes%spurn%multiple%hermeneutic
readings;%Heidegger%and%Derrida%both%famously%found%a%greater%truth,%a%story%in%the%shoes.%Warhols%shoes,
meanwhile,%evidently%no%longer%[speak]%to%us%with%any%of%the%immediacy%of%Van%Goghs%footgear;%indeed%[
they%do]%not%really%speak%to%us%at%all%(Jameson%8).%Jameson%describes%Warhols%canvas%as%epitomizing%the%new
atness,%or%depthlessness,%of%postmodernity,%its%images%li(le%more%than%a%random%collection%of%dead%objects
hanging%together%on%the%canvas%like%so%many%turnips,%as%shorn%of%their%earlier%life%world%as%the%pile%of%shoes%left
over%from%Auschwi2%(Jameson%8).%There%is%thus%no%way%to%complete%the%hermeneutic%gesture,%no%way,%as
Nie2sche%would%say,%to%wrangle%more%life%out%of%this%pair%of%shoes,%now%exposed%for%the%dead%metaphor%that%it
is&(Jameson%9).&For%while%the%Balzacs%and%Flauberts,%the%modernists,%believed%their%texts%capable%of%representing
their%entire%worlds,%the%postmodern%began%to%lose%faith%in%the%feasibility%of%this%notion%%it%came%to%see,%as
Nie2sche%thought%he%saw%a%century%prior,%that%the%profusion%of%dead%images%had%become%our%world.
Jameson%understands%this%postmodernist%disillusionment,%acknowledging%the%faults%of%modernism%that%led%to
this%sentiment,%and%in%fact%touches%upon%the%Nie2schean%concern%of%imprisonment%within%our%human
projections.%The%problem%of%expression%[in%high%modernism]%is%itself%closely%linked%to%some%conception%of%the
subject%as%a%monadlike%container,%Jameson%claims,%within%which%things%felt%are%then%expressed%by%projection
outward%(Jameson%15).%For%modernism,%the%subjects%problems%were%those%of%alienation%and%anxiety.
Postmodernism%hailed%the%end%of%the%conception%of%the%monadlike%ego,%the%decenterment%of%the%single7celled
unit.%No%longer%conceived%as%analyzable%through%the%philosophical%depth%models%of%Hegel,%Freud,%Barthes,%or

Foucault,%the%postmodern%subjects%anxiety%and%alienation%are%displaced%by%fragmentation%%there%is%no%longer
a%singular%ego%capable%of%feeling%anxiety,%or,%in%fact,%as%Jameson%argues,%capable%of%individual,%unique%feeling%of
any%kind.%Edvard%Munchs%modernist%treatise%The$Scream$epitomizes%for%Jameson%the%paradox%and%sacrice
involved%in%this%condition%of%subjecthood,%the%eects%of%which%are%not%all%that%dissimilar%from%the%prison%of
human%metaphors%that%Nie2sche%described.%As%The$Scream$reminds%us,%when%you%constitute%your%individual
subjectivity%as%a%self7sucient%eld%and%a%closed%realm,%you%thereby%shut%yourself%o%from%everything%else%and
condemn%yourselfto%a%prison%cell%without%egress%(Jameson%15).%Jameson%then%argues%that%postmodernism
signaled%the%end%of%this%dilemma,%of%the%alienating%prison%of%representation%%and%yet%for%Jameson,%too%much%is
lost%in%postmodernism%to%truly%call%it%a%solution.%Without%a%self%constituted%by%our%human%system%and
projections,%postmodernism%is%left%without%a%self%capable%of%feeling%anything%at%all:%postmodern%works%are
rendered%impersonal,%suering%from%what%Jameson%calls%the%waning%of%aect%(Jameson%11).%This%waning%of
aect%is%directly%linked%to%the%waning%of%memory,%the%waning%of%belief%in%the%modernist%theme%of%time%and
temporality,%and%the%waning%of%belief%in%any%sort%of%collective%historicity.%The%past%is%still%present,%but%not%in%the
systematized%way%that%we%had%prior%typically%understood%it.%For%postmodernists,%the%past%is%deployed%instead
in%pastiche,%in%the%culture%of%simulacrum:%our%collective%memory%becomes%li(le%more%than%empty%decorative
images,%bracketed%and%neglected%until%it%is%eaced%entirely%(Jameson%18).%Things%like%nostalgia%lms%and%Epcot
China%leave%us%with%glossy%images%of%a%perceived,%stereotype%of%a%past%%but%no%longer%do%postmodernists
endeavor%to%represent%the%historical%past,%believing%that%we%can%only%represent%our%ideas%and%stereotypes
about%that%past%(Jameson%25).
So%is%this%%postmodernism%and%all%of%its%consequences%%what%we%can%expect%if%we%are%to%do%away%with%our
prison%of%concepts,%if%we%are%to%follow%Nie2sches%advice%and%remember%that%the%reality%we%have%built%ourselves
is%naught%but%the%product%of%our%own%human%intellect?%Nie2sche%did%not%live%to%witness%postmodernism,%but
he%speaks%of%a%liberated%intellect%who%smashes%apart%the%scaolding%of%metaphors,%sca(ering%it,%and%then
ironically%puts%it%together%again,%joining%the%most%remote%and%separating%what%is%closest%(Nie2sche%255).%His
description%of%liberation%sounds%eerily%similar%to%Jamesons%characterization%of%the%postmodern%man%who
smashes%and%sca(ers%the%past,%fastening%it%into%an%ironic%pastiche%of%images.%Yet%this%man%who%for%Nie2sche%is
liberated%by%memory,%disentangled%from%the%deceit%of%his%representation%precisely%because%he%remembers%his
human%situation,%is%for%Jameson%doomed%to%forget:%in%dismissing%our%collective,%and%admi(edly%reconstructed
version%of%a%past%history,%the%postmodern%forgets%the%real%world,%and,%as%in%Platos%cave,%must%trace%our
mental%images%of%that%[dismissed]%past%upon%its%conning%walls%(Jameson%25).%Once%liberated%from%the
formerly7institutionalized%and%canonical%memory,%he%is%condemned%to%seek%History%by%way%of%our%own%pop
images%and%simulacra%of%that%history,%which%itself%remains%forever%out%of%reach%(Jameson%25).
Thus%for%both%Nie2sche%and%Jameson%forge(ing%has%its%consequences:%if%we%forget%our%condition,%naively
trusting%the%truth%we%fabricate,%then%we%are%liars%imprisoned%within%the%tower%of%truth%we%manufacture.%Yet%if
we%remember%this%situation,%we%necessarily%forget%the%tower%itself,%sha(ering%our%historical%memory%and
narrative%and%leaving%us%with%nothing%to%scrap%together%from%its%pieces.%Either%we%are%stuck%within%Nie2schean
lies,%trapped%in%illusion,%or%stuck%within%Jamesons%cave,%condemned%to%harsh%reality.%Perhaps%the%only%viable
solution%is%the%one%that%Jameson%seems%to%advocate:%continuing%to%tell%ourselves%grand%narratives,%to%historicize,
so%long%as%we%never%forget%that%that%is%indeed%what%we%are%doing.%As%long%as%we%do%not%forget%that%the%historical
memory%that%roots%us%was%constructed%by%none%other$than%us,%perhaps%living%mythically%is%not%so%bad.&After%all,
it%may%be%the%only%means%we%have%of%sparing%ourselves%from%the%disheartening%reality%of%the%human%situation.
So%we%humans%trudge%on,%remembering%and%representing%%the%only%means%we%have%to%preserve%[us]%for%a
moment%in%an%existence%out%of%which%[we]%would%otherwisehave%every%reason%to%ee%(Nie2sche%246).
Back$to$Table$of$Contents

Works&Cited
Jameson,%Fredric.%Postmodernism,$or,$The$Cultural$Logic$of$Late$Capitalism.$Durham,%North%Carolina:%Duke
University%Press,%1991.%Print.%1754.%
Nie2sche,%Friedrich%tOn%Truth%and%Lying%in%An%Extra7Moral%Sense.t%Friedrich$NieIsche$on$Rhetoric$and
Langauge.$Edited%and%translated%by%Sander%L.%Gilman,%Carole%Blair,%and%David%J.%Parent.%Oxford:%Oxford
University%Press,%1989.%Print.

Newer: Lost%in%Space:%An%Examination%of%the%Varied%Valuation%of%Space%within%Bostons%South%End,%Pt.%2
Older: Acknowledgements

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